Although well-established criteria exist for evaluating the quality of research conducted using the Positivistic lens, and some criteria exist for judging research conducted using the Postmodernist lens, few criteria exist for judging research conducted using the Pragmatic lens. This is significant as mixed methods, complexity, and systems dynamics research belong to this lens, and a lack of criteria for judging quality may alternately contribute to either a shortage of Pragmatic research or a plethora of lower quality, uncritically evaluated Pragmatic research. The purpose of this article is to propose a theory-building process for Pragmatic research and to explore some possible criteria for evaluating the quality of Pragmatic research.
Problem StatementThe purpose of this article is to abductively develop a boilerplate to evaluate the quality of Pragmatic research including systems research, complex adaptive systems research, and abductive mixed methods research to expand HRD researchers' understanding of Pragmatic research, reduce Pragmatic research studies' false rejection on the basis of dominant Positivistic criteria, and increase the diversity of research in the field of HRD.